Various units such as video decoders and graphics processing units (GPUs) compose image frames. For example, video decoders may compose a series of video pictures that are displayed sequentially for smooth video playback. GPUs may compose graphics content for an executing application such as a video game. A camera processor may compose an image captured by a camera. Image frames may generally refer to any viewable content such as the composed graphics content from the GPUs, video pictures from the video decoders, and the image captured by the camera, as a few examples.
The various units may output the composed image frames to a frame buffer for storage. For example, the frame buffer may store pixel values for the pixels of the image frames. A display may receive the pixel values from the frame buffer and display the image frames as viewable content based on the pixel values. In alternate examples, the various units may output the image frames to the display without first storing the image frame in the frame buffer.